Mark Zuckerberg believes that the Internet needs new rules. To spread his call, the Facebook boss went through his social network, but also through the Washington Post, where he was able to publish his article. Zuck identified four domains to be regulated: violent and hateful content, election protection, privacy protection, and data portability.
These are areas where Facebook has regularly been singled out for its shortcomings, as was the case very recently during the Christchurch attack.
Modernize regulations to ensure that interference does not threaten elections
Besides, the Facebook boss makes election legislation the second major point of his speech. Mark Zuckerberg, who points out that his social network requires advertisers to verify their identity before buying political advertisements and refers to the searchable archive of advertisers, notes that there is a lack of regulation to determine what constitutes accurate political advertising.
He also notes that “laws on online political advertising mainly target candidates and elections, rather than controversial political issues, which have been the source of more interference.” Zuckerberg thus hopes for modernization of legislation that can reflect “the reality of threats and set standards for the sector.”
Zuckerberg reiterates his approval of the GDPR and wishes to extend it worldwide
Another commandment of the founder of the social network with a thumbs up concerns the protection of privacy, directly echoing the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), with which he “agrees” once again. Zuck even believes that it would be “good for the Internet” if the DGMP were to inspire other countries and into creating national legislation.
But Zuckerberg would also be in favor of the creation of a “common global framework,” which would prevent the Internet from being too fractured, as well as artificial intelligence, which could serve “clear rules.”
Common standards on data transferability
Mark Zuckerberg is advocating for a new global regulation that would guarantee the principle of data portability. “If you share data with a single service, you should be able to transfer it to another service securely. It gives people a choice and allows developers to innovate,” he says. In this regard, he recalled the existence of the Facebook for Developers platform.
For the creator of the social network, this domain also requires standards that are common to all platforms. “That’s why we support a standard data transfer format and the open source data transfer project,” he said.
Third party organizations to provide a better framework for the dissemination of violent and hateful content
In his article, Mark Zuckerberg begins with the most recent and relevant topic: violent and offensive content, or what he calls “harmful content.” With skillfulness, the soon-to-be-35-year-old leader responds to a specific criticism, claiming to “agree” with legislators who blame Facebook for exercising too much power over speech. “It is impossible to remove all harmful content from the Internet,” he admits. “We need a more standardized approach.
Zuckerberg thus wishes to see the creation of “third-party organizations, whose role would be to set baselines for what should be prohibited,” and to require companies to set up systems to reduce hate and violent content to a strict minimum.
